


Come and Go

by mythoro



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Cheesy, Established Relationship, F/M, Romance, they live in a different area and talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:34:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25085482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythoro/pseuds/mythoro
Summary: Lars and Sadie meet almost every night in their small town located by some train tracks. They love wondering together about whatever comes to their mind. // AU
Relationships: Lars Barriga/Sadie Miller
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Come and Go

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely inspired by a song my friend posted that mentioned train tracks. This is an AU where Lars and Sadie live in a nature-y area by train tracks. Enjoy!
> 
> For my friends.

** COME AND GO **

Another summer night invited honking trains nearby Lars’ neighborhood. As soon as he heard the blaring horns about an hour past sunset, he knew Sadie would be sitting outside give or take five minutes. Lately she’d always be out there before he got to their not-so-secret-but-totally-secret-meeting-spot, but never had to wait for him longer than five minutes. They lived their lives around estimations. And honestly? They boded well with it. It wasn’t quite like strict recipe making where certain dishes had no room for measurements off by just a tiny bit. He loved the non-urgent breathing room.

Night was quiet in the Barriga residence. The house groaned as its hanging pictures rattled with the passing train vibrating the earth. They lived rather close by the tracks, but he didn’t mind if it meant easing the financial burden on his parents. It took him years after high school to combing through his heavy, annoying brain what he could do for a living and then years after that to accept that there were actually people out there willing to pay him for catering nice lunches and dinners for events. His friends checked-in every now and then to make sure he was okay with attaching a price to his cooking hobby. He said it was fine. After all, he kept favorites to himself and those close with him: baking sweets.

So, things worked out just fine. Honestly? The hardest ordeal out of all of that was convincing his parents to accept him helping out with bills. They’d do anything for their “little baby bird” to retain a component of youth, but what helped with his emotional growth out-fared their own small ordeal of raising a child. Things come and go.

Lars tiptoed down the stairs to avoid possibly waking his parents up. They insisted creaks in the house didn’t bother them, but his concern persisted regardless. As with every night, they the entry light was on so he wasn’t left entirely to the void. He smiled in thanks, grabbed a jacket that frankly needed washing as of six months ago, his shoes, and left the house.

Outside beckoned to him far too longingly. It had been a long day of doing nothing-in-particular including but not limited to surfing the web, testing recipes, and hosting virtual cooking lessons to those who requested it. Life wasn’t terribly ridden with sudden pushes and pulls, but it took him his entire adolescence and then some to learn that breathing didn’t have to be so hectic. He still was a little bit of a hothead though. Just a little.

The warm night puckered the back of his neck. Stubborn, he zipped up his jacket. He felt powerful in his silly defiance.

He trotted through the residential forest plot. His parents’ cabin in the middle of a somewhat populated woodsy forest would’ve blended in if it weren’t for their choice of lumber being _slightly_ too red compared with the tree trunks surrounding the area. Even the night couldn’t diminish its saturation. The other houses leaned more towards a traditional brown wood. Sadie, who lived down the road, had a lighter house which was easier on the eyes. Buildings closer to the main town tended towards these lighter palettes. Now was not the time for dilly-dallying, though. He continued onwards.

Lars strolled along a worn dirt path underneath the usual wooden streetlamps. Above those lamps were blinking stars burning intensely in the depths of space light-years away. The train’s calls grew louder and closer as he went farther away from the neighborhood into the forest, its light within view.

They were always surrounded by a lit transit.

He eventually found himself at their not-so-secret-but-totally-secret-meeting-spot. There was a slight dip into a curving road filled with grass, train tracks, and the passing train flashing with lights and various cargo colors. He carefully slid down some makeshift stone steps him and Sadie made some time ago. When exactly? He could only remember her hair was shorter back then, so who knows when that was. They gave each other haircuts all the time.

“Sades!” He belted out over the horn. She looked behind her shoulder, watching him as he plopped down beside her.

“Right on time,” she greeted. They both looked to the train about fifty feet away. The blurry pseudo-art show continued on zooming by.

“Should be ending soon, right?”

“Yep.”

Illuminated tracks and the backdrop forest soon replaced the train. Stationery became the normal again. They watched the lonely end of the train trudge on away, away, away. Sometimes they’d see somebody in the back of the train, but not this time. Funny how the end of the train felt the most personable. Lars didn’t know why he was hoping there’d be someone there this time.

“Nobody, huh?” He wondered.

“Nope. Nothing dropped, either.”

Lars rolled his eyes. “Oh boy. Another event-less night.”

“If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll see a ghost.”

He snickered. “We really are desperate for something if we’re thinking about a whole other inter-dimensional interference.”

“Well isn’t that the longest sentence I’ve heard you say all week.” She said with evident deadpan.

“Oh, like you remember every sentence I’ve ever said this week. You some sort of memory geek?” He playfully pushed her but wrapped his arm around her, wanting her warmth despite the night’s humidity. It felt right, it felt constant. Lars stroked her shoulder before wondering, “If we’re haunting, like, you know, we’re the ghosts, will we be stuck in the same place?”

“Hmmm,” Sadie took his hand and placed his finger on her bottom lip, pursing it in thought. “I think that’s how a lot of rumors go. Ghosts are like, bound and stuff.”

“We’ll be like trains then, huh? In between worlds.”

“Spooky, ghostly, bodily, human-shaped trains.”

Lars snickered. “Sometimes it already feels like that, though.”

“At least we’ll have cool ghost tails.” They shared a blanket of silence. The hum of bugs came and went like waves. The grass didn’t rustle. There was no wind.

“Sadie.”

“Yeah?”

He paused. He looked at her chin, then her chipping polish he applied weeks ago before running out of his favorite color, to her faded clothes meant for sitting by the tracks’ grass, and then back to her neck up to her eyes. He knew her things so well, aging alongside with them.

“Yeah dude, what is it?” She stifled a laugh and cocked her head.

“Ummmm,” he cursed a nearby firefly for his sudden hot cheeks, “You think it would be cool to be ghosts together?”

“Ugh, do you EVEN know me?” She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Well, do… do you think ghosts can be in love and stuff?” 

“If you’re being all ooey gooey and they’re all ooey plasma goey, I’m sure it’ll work out.”

“You’re no fun.” He rolled his eyes.

She pecked his neck. “Okay, okay. I’m sure no matter how transient we may be, we’re gonna be all ooey-gooey and love patooey.”

“You know what? Enough of this mushy nonsense.”

“You mean all the stuff _you_ brought up, dummy?”

He stood up and extended his hand to her the she took effortlessly without question. They stood together with their hands just barely clasping. Lars smiled. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” They began walking alongside the train tracks. The grass crumpled with muffled squishes under their feet, dew seeping through the weak parts of their shoes.

“Don’t know.” 

“For how long?”

“Don’t know.”

She smiled.

The forest grew denser as they advanced into the slightly mapped unknown. They walked along the tracks sprouting with a little more life than the previous distances. Their path grew more illuminated, their hands grew tighter.

Sadie realized they’d been walking for maybe an hour; she wasn’t sure how long. She could only guess. But, nevertheless, she naturally replied to what Lars said earlier, wondering if he’d even know it was in response to it. The grin on his face signaled he did, or maybe he was just happy to hear her, as she smiled with a soft, content, “Sounds good.”

They walked along the tracks, bringing daylight with them.

Eventually, the train passed by honking into the forest. It was another wonderful morning.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, leave a little comment.


End file.
